( Sermon Romans 12 :1-8 ) [ German Sermon ] [ Announcements (German)383.79 KB ]
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith;
7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Dear congregation,
The year 2021 has just begun. Every year, many people make New Year resolutions. Some want to change some of their habits. Some want to change their body, and want to lose weight. Not only at the beginning of the year, but also during the year, or even on the 12th day, it’s worthwhile to expose oneself to a change of mind. Every service brings with it the risk that you will not leave as the same person you came as, perhaps also in this sermon text that we have already heard in the reading.
The sermon text begins with "mercy" and it ends with "mercy" – how fitting that this year's motto is "Mercy". The first mercy is the one that God shows us. This is the motif: God is like a merciful father, the story of the Prodigal Son is one of the basic stories. In the second mention of mercy, we church members are the ones who practice mercy, and do so gladly.
The second word that occurs twice in the sermon text is the term "body." In the first part, "body" stands for our whole life, which we may give to God as a sacrifice. In the last part, "body" stands for the body of Christ, for the church, in which each one assumes his tasks, each one has a different function: teaching, exhorting, etc. The first verses exhort us to renewal, the further ones warn against our own arrogance towards the others with whom we acting.
Let's take a look in the past, up until 70 A.D. people went to the Jerusalem temple. They stood in the outer court. They searched for money with their hands in their pockets. They bought sacrificial animals: animals, who were as perfect as possible. They brought the sacrificial animals to the priests, who offered them to God in thanksgiving, in praise, to have a connection with God. Paul urges us to offer our bodies as sacrifices to God. Body, this is us, our being and life. We are to place this at his disposal. Sacrifice has something to do with painful letting go. If you "sacrifice" something colloquially, then it costs you something.
Change is often not easy either: people cling to old habits. Changes are hard work and often they come to nothing. And yet we are constantly changing: You notice this not only when you compare photos from a few years ago with current ones. We don't just change on the outside, but also internally.
Wolf Biermann, a songwriter, once said: "Only those who change, remain true to themselves.” There's some truth to that.
One unchanging change I would like to share with you today: I would like to encourage you to be merciful. Mercy is that which always remains the same, but always shows itself anew. It is the character trait of God which has been mentioned here, which corresponds to His nature and will, which is perfect. It is the mercy that makes us be ourselves, but also changes us.
It is promised to us by God. He is merciful to us because he forgives our sin through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. By God's grace alone, by His mercy, we are righteous before God.
But as followers of Jesus, we are to act mercifully and forgivingly toward others and in doing so conform to God's will and to share in His perfection.
Dear congregation:
To practice mercy is to practice mercy!
The German word for mercy contains the word heart (Barmherzigkeit)
He who is merciful has a big heart for others.
He who is merciful is not hard-hearted.
In my studies I attended a seminar on non-violent communication. The symbolic animal of Nonviolent Communication is the giraffe. Go ahead and imagine a big giraffe. This giraffe has a big heart. It is so big that it tries to sense the needs of the other, its counterpart. For example, if the other person angrily says to the giraffe, "You never have time for me!" then the giraffe senses that the other person likes her and would just like to spend more time with her. She hears this with her giraffe ears. If she were a wolf and heard with wolf ears, then she would have felt attacked by an accusation. The wolf would react mercilessly, e.g. like this: "You never have time for me either. It's always me who calls you, you never get in touch." The giraffe, on the other hand, with its big heart, responds to the need. She rests within herself, perhaps takes another breath, senses what is going on in the other and says, "I would also like to spend more time with you. How do you want us to organize ourselves to have more time together in the future that is good for both of us?" The giraffe is merciful, she is compassionate, she senses and inquires of the other the needs that lie behind what he says. She asks herself: What does the other person need? And she is also with herself and feels and says what she herself needs, instead of fighting for her right with bared teeth. Sometimes you have to sacrifice the wolf! The giraffe sacrifices the fight for her own right in favour of mercy. She does not fight for status and position, but acts from the vastness of her heart.
May the width of the heart, may mercy reign in us and not the fear of missing out. I maintain: this is also the key to the rest of our sermon text: Those who have a giraffe heart do not put themselves above others, but are empathetic toward others. That doesn't mean you have to think everything and everyone is good. The father of the prodigal son also did not like what the son had done. But he still accepted the son generously, mercifully.
Dear congregation, God is the merciful one. God is constantly changing us with his Spirit, through his presence and through what we learn about him through other church members. It is his Spirit that flows through us, as blood flows through our bodies, to every part of our bodies, pumped by our hearts. Let us be changed by Him, that we are ourselves and at the same time one heart and one soul with God. God's heart is so much bigger than that of a giraffe. But sometimes small images and small steps help us to make big changes. I implore you now, brothers and sisters, by the mercy of God, to offer your bodies as a sacrifice that is living, holy and pleasing to God. Change yourselves by renewing your mind!
Amen